As I remember, I first became aware of this exclusive...

As I remember, I first became aware of this exclusive membership when I was eight or nine and walked into the kitchen finding my parents in each other's arms. I remember wondering about this because I had never associated my parents with one another as being in love.
The birth of a baby sister in my family made me aware that there was a relationship between my father and mother that I was not a part of. The fact that they maintained a separate bedroom was another indication that a different relationship existed.
The accidental discovery of a contraceptive, at about the age of twelve, also contributed to my awareness.

The following cases deal with sex education-both informal and for mal-in which preadolescents and their parents are involved. First are some cases in which the encounter was viewed by the preadolescent as unsatisfactory.
We went grocery shopping and passed boxes of sanitary napkins. I (a girl) used to wonder what they were for. She told me that I wasn't old enough to know. I was in third or fourth grade at the time.

When I began menstruating, I cried hysterically, not so much at the sight of the blood, but at the prospect of having to tell my mother.
At age nine my own sexuality became an increased concern. I came upon my mother changing her tam- pax. The blood in the little pad worried me, and I asked her about it. She responded by saying I would learn soon enough what it was and not to worry about it.
Once in fifth or sixth grade I asked my father what it meant when a girl got in trouble. He said, "Ask your mother," but he was so embarrassed by the question that I didn't ask Mom.

My girl friend and I walked home from school and she told me about the funny sensation she had experienced while lying in bed the night before.
I told her I, too, had experienced the same situation; we decided to ask my mother about it.
She gave us a vague explanation, but it was nothing more than a warning not to do it again.
This experience planted in my mind that to talk about the body was bad and it only had dirty connotations. I slowly became quite self- conscious about my body.

Indirectly my parents told me plenty. They made me feel that sex was dirty and was something to be ashamed of or embarrassed about.
Yet they joked about it and my father always had some "girly" magazines lying around the house.
At first I got a big kick out of looking at them, but later they just disgusted me and made me hate being a girl if all the men did was look at our bodies and make jokes about us.

Throughout my childhood, I was taught that a young lady was to be properly modest and that sex and the body was not to be spoken of, not even to my parents or my brothers.
I can remember once asking my mother what p.g. meant and she replying 'pretty girl.' I knew what it meant but you might say I was testing her.